The present invention relates to a cutting device for cutting the edge portion of a sheet bundle made of a plurality of sheets stacked on top of one another; a finisher for finishing the sheet with an image formed thereon ejected from the image forming apparatus, and cutting the edge portion; and an image forming apparatus provided with an image forming section and the finisher.
A finisher equipped with a cutting device for cutting and trimming the edge portion of the booklet having been subjected to the processes of center-binding and center-folding has been used in the field of printing businesses.
Another type of the finisher provided in recent years is a finisher including a cutting device that receives the sheets with an image formed thereon by an image forming apparatus such as a photocopier and printer, applies processes of center-binding and center-folding the sheets and a process of binding the sheets in the form of a book such as a weekly magazine, and then cuts and trims the edge portion of the booklet.
In the cutting device described in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-40890 (claim 15, FIG. 15), a sheet bundle is held in the vertical direction or obliquely by a holding and rotating section for holding the sheet bundle, and the chips of the sheets generated at the time of cutting the sheet bundle are removed from the vicinity of the cutting blade under its own weight or by an elimination unit.
In the cutting device described in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-169598 (Paragraph 0080, FIG. 11), the edge of a sheet bundle is cut by back-and-forth motion of a cutting blade, and the chips cut off by a cutting blade are removed by a removal unit away from the vicinity of the cutting blade.
The cutting device disclosed in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-342854 (claim 1, FIG. 1) is provided with a scraper formed of an elastic thin plate, which is brought in elastic contact with an upper movable blade to remove the chips attached to the upper movable blade.
The cutting device disclosed in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-271175 (Paragraph 0027, FIG. 5) is provided with a falling paper holder and a rising cutter. A cover is installed as a chip falling cover extending continuously over the blade surface of the cutter tip.
The sheet bundle cutting device described in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. 2005-40890 and 2005-169598 removes chips by a rotating paddle engaged with the chips having been cut off. It is not designed to remove the chips attached to the cutting blade.
In the cutting device disclosed in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-342854, a scraper formed of an elastic thin plate removes the chips sticking to the upper movable blade and drops them under their own weight. This arrangement fails to ensure reliable removal of chips from the vicinity of the leading edge of the movable blade having cut into the sheet bundle when the end of a thick sheet bundle is cut.
The sheet cutting device disclosed in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-271175 is provided with a falling paper holder and a rising cutter. This is the same as the cutting device of the present invention in this respect, but the chips having been cut off slip down the chip falling cover extending continuously to the blade surface of the cutter tip, and the chips sticking to the cutter tip cannot be removed.